How I Balance Family Time and Training

Having a family at home and finding time to train can be incredibly hard. But as my favorite Uncle used to tell me, If it's something you genuinely care about, you'll find a way to make it work. As it stands, I run whenever I have free time to do so. Most of the time, that means waking up at the crack of dawn; sometimes, that means running during my lunch break at work. In any case, I get my run in.

For runners crunched for time like me, high mileage training may not be easy to plan, particularly Half or Full marathon training. Half and Full Marathon training are time-consuming. The typical training plan can include five days of running, with one to two days dedicated to long-distance runs, which can take a few hours. Days with the lease obligations are the best days to perform these longer runs.

If your kids are involved in sports, or your family has other activities planned for your off time, it will require you to be more flexible with your training schedule to make it work. What's important to remember is you don't have to stick to the plan to be successful. There are some weeks that you may not be able to do every single run on your training plan, and that's ok.

What's vital is that you give maximum effort with whatever free time you have, and if you get close to your race event time and still feel like you cannot participate comfortably, there's no shame in deferring. But if somehow, through all of the schedule joggling and hard work, you manage to complete your race event, you should be extra proud of your accomplishment. You are a multitasking, time managing, and highly motivated Rockstar!

Remember to applaud your family for their sacrifices in helping you accomplish your goal. We can very rarely do what we do as runners without their support.